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Top South American university to host Palestine conference

December 5, 2016

A top South American university will host a conference on Palestine tomorrow, bringing together politicians, academics and activists from the region and Middle East.

“Brazilian Perspectives on Palestine in a changing Middle East” will be held at Brazil’s University of São Paulo (USP), and is timed to coincide with this year’s International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, which fell last week.

The conference is a joint project of the Center for Arab Studies of USP, the Institute for International Relations at USP, Middle East Monitor (London) and Common Action Forum (Madrid).

The aim of the meeting is to examine current perspectives and inform the political discourse on Palestine in Brazil; intellectually expose and unpack prevailing myths about Palestine; and energize public opinion to hasten the decolonization of Palestine.

Speakers at the event will include Wadah Khanfar, former director general of Al Jazeera Media Network and President of Common Action Forum, Professor Arlene Clemesha, USP-based historian, and Professor Nur Masalha, editor of Holy Land and Palestine Studies from St Mary’s University in London.

There will also be an address by Representative of Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The panelists will address topics such as: “The unfinished business of decolonization: Reinstating Palestine on to the world agenda”, “The rise of global civil society in the quest for Palestinian self-determination” and “Palestine: Shifting the paradigm from the hegemony of vested interest to genuine democracy”.